G30: Yankees 10, Red Sox 3

After a couple of bad starts, Beckett rebounded against the Orioles (7-6-2-0-6, 106) last Sunday. Hughes has been outstanding. In 25 innings over four starts, he has allowed only 10 hits (including nine singles) and four runs, though he has walked 12. Right-handed batters are 3-for-39 against him this year (.077, with a .199 OPS).

Here is your series preview, courtesy of SoSH's mabrowndog. You won't find anything anywhere even 10% as good. Snips:

NYY - 19-8 (.704)2nd in AL East1.0 game behind TB2nd best record in AL

BOS - 15-14 (.517)4th in AL East6.5 games behind TB6th (T) best record in AL ...

It's fair to say the Yankees have yet to be truly tested. The average current W-L record of the teams they've played so far is 13.1-16.0, and only 3 of their 27 games have been against teams with a record better than 15-14. Meanwhile the Sox' average oppositional W-L is 14.6-14.3 with 13 of 29 games against teams better than 15-14. ...

Where the Yankees appear to have flubbed their management of Joba Chamberlain's development, they've hit it out of the park with Hughes. ... [a ton of solid info on Hughes]

What the hell is up with Cap'n Intangibles' low walk total? Just 5 in 123 PA, or 4.1%?? He's on pace for the lowest walk rate and OBP of his career ... Sure enough, he's swinging at far more junk outside the strike zone ... [hitting] a shitload more grounders ...

Curtis Granderson's on the 15-day DL with a groin strain and is likely out until late May. ... An MRI revealed inflammation of [Pettitte's elbow] joint but no ligament damage. ... [Posada missed two games] with a "mild calf strain" ... The 40-year-old Rivera hasn't pitched since April 30 and wasn't available at all this week due to "left side stiffness", whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. ...

Tampa Bay (12-1 on the road this year) is in Oakland tonight.

And: Andre Ethier of the Dodgers has 11 walk-off hits since 2008. No other player has more than five. ... Joe Posnanski remembers Robin Roberts and explains why baseball has never been better than it is right now.

P-Abe: The Red Sox have 11+ hits in each of their last four games. They are now third in baseball in OPS (.818) and sixth in runs scored with 150. ... The Yankees have RHP Romulo Sanchez. It's likely Andy Pettitte is headed to the disabled list.

Philip said... 9c: I highly doubt it. Jackson's been buoyed by one of the most ridiculously unsustainable BABIPs in baseball. Look at his K and BB rates. There is literally no way he keeps this up.

He is 23!!. the numbers he has right now will are a little crazy....but this kid is going to be good , real good.....the yankees said they wanted to get younger, and they trade away their top prospect for Curtis Granderson......Top Prospect = Curtis Granderson, I don't think so.

Shonda Schilling has written a book about her family: "The Best Kind of Different"

After several years of public and private outbursts by their young son Grant, the Schillings at last learned the reason in the summer of 2007. That is when Grant Schilling was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder called Asperger's Syndrome. ... Though the diagnosis was chilling -- as it would be for any parents and siblings -- it was also a bit of a relief for the Schillings to finally know why Grant struggled so much with seemingly routine things. ...

Shonda learned that three of her four children have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). That is something that Curt has long had and been medicated for. Aside from having ADHD, Gehrig, the oldest, had a bout with anorexia as a young teen. Overwhelmed by it all, Shonda wound up being medicated for depression ...

"There were so many times that I felt so alone and I was smiling my way through it at the ballpark and I was pretending to be [happy], but I was dying inside," Schilling said ...

Wow, I am so torn. Going to dinner at a friend's. Then we might go to the Gallery Hop downtown, which I almost never get to attend. But it's the Sox v Yankees!Damn. Decisions, decisions. Guess I'll see how much vino we have with dinner and let that decide.I'm thinking we get 2 out this series, just hope we can get to Hughes tonight. I hate be "up against a wall" in terms of the series after the 1st game. He's tough, but the bats are on a roll. Oh and Laura - Great letter!

So it looks like Harvey and I are going to be written up in an article next month in the Yankees magazine. A friend from high school who is a freelance writer wrote a piece about Yankee-Red Sox relationships interviewed us and said "our story" will be included in her article.

Unfortunately she is a Yankee fan so sold her story to them, not the Sox.

Phil Hughes is pitching a perfect game!!!Phil Hughes is pitching a perfect game!!!Phil Hughes is pitching a perfect game!!!Phil Hughes is pitching a perfect game!!!Phil Hughes is pitching a perfect game!!!

Thanks for the hockey info. I am just so out of that loop. Never understood that game. All that skating back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, until suddenly, without any warning, someone scores. It's like some bizarro version of basketball---back and forth, back and forth, scoring most of the time, until time runs out. Not a fan of either sport.

Good thing because I have a hard enough time finding time for baseball!

So...I am glad I don't have to bat for the Red Sox after Beckett hit all these guys. What the hell is he doing? Has he lost all control? He couldn't have intended to force in runs (let alone hit Varitek).

If those pitches were intentional, Josh would have to be completely insane. It's one thing to put a guy on base when they're empty or there's one on. But intentionally putting the game almost out of reach?

i will say that my first thought when jeter got hit to force in a run that tito was going to yank him right then and there because he was annoyed/frustrated/pissed off and it was on purpose. what i think means nothing, but that was my immediate thought.